18-year-old who overdosed on MDMA at Fabric London deemed ‘naive user’

In August, the world-famous London nightclub Fabric was forced to cease all operations following the deaths of two attendees over the summer. One of these unfortunate partygoers was 18-year-old Ryan Browne, who it was determined had passed away due to an extremely high level of MDMA in his blood.

As the hearing date for Fabric’s appeal gets closer, more facts have been coming out about the case. An inquest into Browne’s death today revealed that he had become frustrated when he could not feel the effects of the ecstacy that he had brought in for himself. He managed to purchase more of the drug inside Fabric, which he ingested and which led to an MDMA blood level over seven times the recreational limit.

The senior coroner who examined the body, Mary Hassell, explained that this dose would have been fatal even for a user who was “very habituated,” which Browne was not. “He was a naive user—he was naive in life as well, but he was a naive drug user,” Hassell said.

This tragedy highlights once again the importance of drug education programs. It is not feasible to prevent people from taking drugs such as MDMA entirely. In fact, harsh punitive legislation against drug use can make matters worse. However, according to Mitchell Gomez of DanceSafe, the majority of fatalities caused by this type of drug can be prevented by implementing more comprehensive drug education programs, or by legalized, regulated markets.

Fabric will be appealing Islington Council’s decision to revoke their operating license on November 28, 2016.